one of the saddest things I've ever read. (don't mean that in a bad way, it was very touching). Chris had a lot of demons. What I found most sad was that he was clean for 3 years before going on a year long binge that ultimately killed him.

First Kindle book I bought. Its taking me forever to read it - have just been too busy and playoff hockey takes priority.

Cool book so far. I was surprised how technical some of it was already. Comparing it to other geared-towards-all-readers physics books that I've read it seems to presume a good bit of knowledge on the part of the reader in some spots.

Finished the first Greg Mandel book from my favorite modern Sci-Fi author, Peter F. Hamilton. It was no where near as quality as his Commonwealth Universe series of books which are the best sci-fi I have read by someone who is not one of the pillars. But it was the first book he ever published 20 years ago. I plan on reading everything he has out.

The book before this was Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which was average, nothing great and not bad.

Right now I bought some Fantasy book on an impulse book from my kindle cause it had a crap ton of reviews. "The Name of the Wind". Not too far in, but it is fairly decent. Not gritty enough for my tastes these days though.

Ha, full title per Amazon is "Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey--and Even Iraq--Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport."

original edition. my senior capstone professor was moving to california and was offering us free reign over all of his books in his office so he didnt have to move them. no one else went but i figured what the hell. saw this book and grabbed because cryptozoology is pretty neat to me and i was looking on amazon and the original editions are selling for 200 bucks

Ha, full title per Amazon is "Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey--and Even Iraq--Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport."

Good read?

Very good. It's interesting to see arguments backed up with statistics being applied to a sport that generally doesn't use them, at least publicly. The chapters on the what it takes to have a great national team I found interesting also.

Ha, full title per Amazon is "Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey--and Even Iraq--Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport."

Good read?

Very good. It's interesting to see arguments backed up with statistics being applied to a sport that generally doesn't use them, at least publicly. The chapters on the what it takes to have a great national team I found interesting also.

Did you read that outliers book? The introduction explains why the structure of youth hockey creates a bias against kids born later in the year. It talks about youth hockey and the coaching/training some kids receive and how being born early in the year puts you against younger kids and you look better, hence get the special attention....pretty cool and substantial.

Very good. It's interesting to see arguments backed up with statistics being applied to a sport that generally doesn't use them, at least publicly. The chapters on the what it takes to have a great national team I found interesting also.

Did you read that outliers book? The introduction explains why the structure of youth hockey creates a bias against kids born later in the year. It talks about youth hockey and the coaching/training some kids receive and how being born early in the year puts you against younger kids and you look better, hence get the special attention....pretty cool and substantial.

Very interesting.

I know from experience that the same things you note above about hockey is true as well in soccer. My dad always said if he could go back he would make me stay in the womb for another couple weeks so that I could have be the oldest in my age group instead of the youngest.

On a side note the selection process for Olympic Development Program in soccer in the U.S. is extremely biased.

Did you read that outliers book? The introduction explains why the structure of youth hockey creates a bias against kids born later in the year. It talks about youth hockey and the coaching/training some kids receive and how being born early in the year puts you against younger kids and you look better, hence get the special attention....pretty cool and substantial.